Evaluating Alternatives: The New Roles and Alternative Revenue Models Within Design Practice

2 October 2015

On Friday 2 October, the architect Marc Koehler gives a lecture on the changing role of the architect within design practice. Koehler, and his office MKA, is an innovator of other methods for architecture.

An example of MKA's approach is the Superlofts residential concept, where residents can create their own dream loft within a defined spatial and financial framework. Superlofts are unique, collective residential buildings with shared facilities. They meet the demand for local involvement and collectivity, while simultaneously providing individual choice and character.

Marc Koehler's lecture is the first in the 'Evaluating Alternatives’ series, addressing the changing role of the architect and designer – a much discussed subject in recent years, both within the discipline itself and by those who are confident of designers' problem solving abilities. It is an example of a paradigm shift: modest and mostly temporary designs instead of grand gestures.

Such developments are recognised on of the front and back cover of the Architecture in the Netherlands Yearbook 2014/2015, which contrasts the controversial and iconic architecture of the Markthal in Rotterdam by MVRDV with De Ceuvel in Amsterdam, a temporary ecological creative hub by Space&Matter et al.

Exploring different roles
Increasingly, we see (young) designers explore different roles in order to achieve optimisation in spatial, strategic, programmatic and organisational approaches. This is all enabled by the current technological landscape. These experiments with development methods allow them to function outside of traditional professional frameworks. Additionally, there is an active search for alternative economic methods, such as crowd-funding (Voordekunst, Kickstarter), Time/Bank, Open Systems (co-creation), or crowd-sourcing (co-production and critical mass), to realise projects.

These divergent trends can obviously be seen within broader social forces. The role of the citizen, government, and businesses has changed under the current economic and social reality. For this series, Bureau Europa will focus on the risks and the potential of these new roles and alternative revenue models within design practice.

After working for the renowned Dutch architects Architekten Cie., in 2005 Marc founded his own design practice, MKA, and from 2004 to 2011 he taught at TU Delft. Marc Koehler won the Future Talent’ category of the 2015 National Building Award for his Dune House in Terschelling, which also won the Reynaers Project Award in 2014. Marc Koehler was nominated for the Iakov Chernikhov Prize in 2015 and the Prix de Rome in 2014. In 2009 Koehler was selected by architecture critic Hans Ibelings for the Top 10 of Dutch architects under 40. He has won competitions internationally including the Oporto Riverfront competition (2008), the Loker community centre, Belgium (2009), an honourable mention for the new Faculty of Architecture at TU Delft (2009), the Vesalius Campus building in Ghent (2011), and more recently the Rhijnspoor building for the University of Amsterdam (2013) and the Kastamonu Campus in Turkey (2013). MKA is currently developing a community centre and library in Edegem, Belgium, a villa on Terschelling, and various collective residential buildings throughout the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Groningen, Delft) as part the Superlofts concept, which was developed by MKA.